The Blanks of War
We set our story to the west of the Everfree forest, specifically a small ghost town that at one point was known as Light's Keep. Years before the elements of harmony led the crusades to eradicate the changeling menace the village was burned to the ground in raids by the gryphons. The villagers who had survived were all found crucified on burning crosses still alive, the ponies assumed it was changelings and redoubled their efforts to eradicate their race. The changelings however fed off of the loyalty the soldiers had, the love for their country if you will, and held them at bay. To this day changelings are blamed for anything horrible that happens across the nation of Equestria, however no one remembers this poor little town that never got the justice it deserved, its citizens forever deprived of closure.
A group of ponies has stumbled into the town panting heavily, a rag tag group of six friends. Their leaders who were panting heavily in front of the rest were a white-blue earth pony and a gray unicorn. The earth pony had a long messy black mane which currently was dangling in front of his eyes causing him much annoyance and his cutie mark resembled a tremolo that you might see in sheet music. The unicorn had a short cut, center parted, sandy blonde hair and his cutie mark was an open book with blank pages. The earth pony was Bass, an heir to the musical kingdom of Vinyl Scratch who had ascended to immortality 200 years ago when the elements of harmony died in combat against Nightmare Moon's third coming. The unicorn was Gray, one of the best teachers in all of Canterlot, or rather he was. He repeatedly showed up to work drunk while he taught at the kindergarten, Celestia was less than enthused and banished him to the town of Ponyville.
Alongside them there was a bat pony, Lucifer, another unicorn, Bondfire, a zebra, Zachary, and a pegasus, Aren. Lucifer was what you could expect for a bat pony, dark gray coat and bat wings but the problem with his image was his mane which was an array of colors that he spiked up and swept back, he had a tribal tattoo of the drama masks on his flank. Bondfire had a coat of the brightest red you can imagine with a mane that seemed to flow through different shades of orange, her flank had a fire on it. Zachary was the only zebra since Zecora the ancient to live in the Everfree, he ran a joke shop and like any other member of his race bore an odd runic symbol rather than a cutie mark, his mane was in the standard zebra mohawk. Finally there was Aren, a soldier of the Solar Empire who was forced to join the friends on their journey to complete their friendship research, his flank bore the mark of a shield.
“Shit Gray, you didn't tell me that manticores could run that fast.” Bass wheezed out.
“Well I didn't think you were seriously going to attack the thing.” Gray said in reply as he fell to the ground and laid on his side.
“Well, I suppose we shouldn't be going back that way seeing as how it nearly tore us apart in that chase.”
The group examined their surroundings, they seemed to have arrived in a clearing in the forest where someone had built a small village. It was late so there was no doubt that all of the villagers would be asleep in their homes, the party decided it would be best to just set up camp where they were and inquire about the village in the morning. While setting up their campsite they thought they heard sounds around them, not normal forest sounds mind you but whispers and laughter, so low it barely registered as audible behind the sounds of the wind. Oddly enough, though no one noticed, the leaves were still and the animals were silent, the night seemed to sit like a stagnant river the flow of which was lost forever to forces unknown draining the very power that caused it to flow. The friends were losing their alertness, the long night of fleeing from death had taken its toll on them and the call of Luna was strong that night indeed.
The forest shook softly, sending leaves into a light shake bringing about a shifting sound to break the silence of the perfectly dark night that lay all around. The music of the night rocked the friends slowly into a state of blissful sleep as the forest seemed to whisper a soft lullaby into their ears. They fell into their bedrolls, unable to keep their eyes open as the forest continued to exude its soft and caring aura, making them feel at home even in a place they were told was more dangerous than anywhere they could find outside of the wastes. But as they drifted off to sleep the forest stirred more than just its leaves, eyes appeared in the line of trees. To a casual observer these eyes would seem to fit in their black background but to the more cautious pony one could notice that there was a peculiar light shining that designated just where the creatures sat; where the creatures were perched, watching, waiting.
These creatures were unknown to the whole of existence, they were the very thing that even existence refused to acknowledge. They lived outside the boundaries of the mind, living where no pony would ever dare to wander, in the eternal chaos that was creation; no pony might comprehend truly what this existence was. However if one caught sight of their eyes, if one truly admired the almost beautiful look of their eyes that ever glowed in the night, one could grasp the small inkling of what the abyss truly was. Those eyes that were so horribly empty and yet so full of life, of energy, that they seemed to illuminate the night. How something so dark could bring forth light into such a still, thick, black night as this was only another mystery to fathom.
Inside those eyes was something that every soul would covet, inside those eyes laid the beauty of one thousand nights, of hundreds of dreams floating in that place between two realities, in that magical flow that purveyed the universe no matter where the body may flee, the beauty of one million lifetimes and more. However those eyes were not that of the creature they seemed to portray, those eyes belonged to a predator, a monster, a being so grotesque that no description of it would ever do it justice, even as I recount this tale to you, my faithful audience, I still cannot bring myself to truly describe their appearance. They hunted as any predator would, slowly stalking their prey and waiting for opportunities to close in for the kill, however these creatures had different methods of capturing their prey. Slowly they shifted around the sleeping group, ever watching their quarry, never letting their magnificent, shining eyes to leave their bodies. Slowly the eyes faded and the trees ceased their movements, however there now stood a small village in the clearing around the sleeping ponies who stayed lying quietly in place.
…
Bass was the first to awaken into the grace of Celestia's dawning beauty, his hair was in total disarray and his eyes were bloodshot. His body was more effected by the horrible night's sleep on the cold hard ground of the dark Everfree forest than he understood, and with dangerous creatures on the prowl he was a distinct disadvantage. The village slowly began to mill about and spring into action unbeknownst to Bass or the other members of the group who were still sleeping. The village was your standard image of a small settlement, a place were ponies could typically live in the quiet, peaceful setting of a farming town. However not everything was as it seemed in this village, buildings were standard fare for a village, however these buildings seemed a bit too standard.
The buildings everywhere in the village lacked any unique features, they all had the same thatched roofs and white walls and each and every one of them lacked a window, no one saw in, no one saw out. The monsters milling about in the village were slowly taking on the facades of ponies, their monstrous features hidden behind the marshmallow skin and coats of technicolor equines. Bass slowly turned around and surveyed his surroundings but his hazy state of mind seemed to be impairing his vision as well. All he could tell was that where there was an empty meadow, or at least he thought there was, there was now a small village going about it's own daily routine.
Bass walked around and roused his companions from their slumber as the village continued finalizing its form. By the time all of the companions had awoken the monster's trap was finally finished and ready for springing. Bass was finally fully awake and was beginning to scan the village and its people to get an idea of the population of the settlement. He never noticed but none of the ponies seemed to have any cutie marks in any way. The group began to walk towards the village, deciding it would be best to investigate this magically appearing hamlet.
As they walked through the village ponies would stop and wave or shout a hello in their direction, everything was as it should be in a small settlement. The group continued walking and exploring the village, eventually coming to the center to a small well. Everyone around the town seemed nice enough, perhaps they had been there but the friends were just too tired to notice. Bass drew some water from the well and passed it around to his friends, each one taking a long drink from the jug. Unbeknownst to them they had just ingested a sinister concoction of drugs, hallucinogens naturally produced by the creatures, black blood.
Black blood caused the consumer to have vivid hallucinations and intensely strong feelings of dread. After only a few days the infected would fall under the effects of a black blood fever; Vomiting, seizures, temporary blindness, unresponsive muscles and finally heart failure. However these creatures killed quickly, only ever using the black blood they poisoned the well with as insurance on their kill. But it appears I have not explained to you, my beautiful audience, exactly how these creatures kill and devour their prey. Have no worries, you will now full well and without any doubt exactly how these monstrosities go about their vile actions, on that you have my word.
The friends continued to sit at the well while Zachary, the zebra and prankster of the group, began to draw more water. However the jug became stuck on something inside the well and the young zebra craned his neck over the wall of the well to look inside and find the cause of the inconvenient jam. Sitting atop the jug appeared to be a white, oddly sharp round object however after tugging the rope some of the object broke away and the jug continued to rise. When the jug peaked Zachary finally realized what he was looking at, he spoke over his shoulder to his friends, telling them to look at his latest discovery. On top of the jug there was the bleached white skull of a pony.
The group lost the feeling of joy immediately as each one in turn and saw the skull sitting upon their source of water. Zachary lifted the skull off of the jug and began kicking it around in the air like a ball while he sang a nursery rhyme from his days as a foal. Lucifer joined in on the game, he was used to this scene as he grew up in the Dark Below where murder was common and it was an oddity for a child not to be playing with bodies. However the rest of the group was disgusted, spewing their recently ingested drink back out of their systems only to find that their vomit had turned pitch black and left a painful burning in their throats. Bass walked to the well after recovering from the vomiting, he looked in, trying to see the bottom to scan for more body parts.
A single page drifted out from the well and landed on Bass's face sending him reeling backwards, eventually tripping and falling to the ground. Gray pulled the paper and began to scan the writing on it, his face immediately shifted from an emotionless stare to a look of sheer terror. Lucifer and Zachary stopped playing with the skull and walked over to try and find out what had caused there friend to become so distraught. Lucifer looked at the note, on it he saw printed:
Mundas, three of winter, year 204
The villagers are getting suspicious of my actions and I can't seem to control my recent talents. It's as though magic comes naturally to me, more so than for most other unicorns. The ponies here believe that I am evil because I can cast my magics so easily, they've taken to calling me a witch. Oh dear Celestia they're at my door! They aren't even trying to negotiate, the door can't hold for long.
Whoever finds this, run.
P.S.
They're after you now.
As Lucifer looked up from the paper he noticed that the villagers had begun gathering around them; Bass was the first one to offer a plan as the seconds ticked by. The friends slowly collapsed closer together going back to back , looking around and waiting for one of the villagers to make a move. After a short while of standing still Bass yelled out for the party to run and so they did, they ran straight through the crowd towards the way they had come. The sun was quickly extinguished as a pitch black night surrounded them while the villagers, one by one, stripped out of their disguises. Gray began an incantation for a simple light spell as the group huddled together.
Slowly a soft white glow grew around the party as Gray let out a sigh of relief, however all was not right. He could feel amongst the bodies of his friends a liquid coating his flank. He felt coldness running down his spine, slowly he craned his neck around. He thought he could see something out of the corner of his eye before, with a sickening pop, the monster snapped his neck. The others had already began running again as the light from Gray's spell faded leaving them in darkness once more, they still couldn't remember where they entered from. However, even though they could not recall their escape route, they fully intended to escape from the creatures that were chasing them.
All around there was an eery glow beginning to rise and the group was finally capable of seeing somewhat, at least shapes. And they saw the not-shapes of hundreds of monsters, multiple monstrosities that were hunting them as prey. Bondfire was trying to ignite fires around the creatures and they seemed to be dodging the fires as they erupted from the ground, fear was evident in their movements. Lucifer, sensing their fear began to run towards the creatures with his fangs readied, only to be met on his way there with a jutting black tentacle flying from one of the creatures flying through his open mouth and out through the back of his head. Blood sprayed everywhere as the survivors continued to run from the increasingly violent scene, more tentacles plunged through their friend's body at random points.
They continued to run towards where they thought the exit to the village would be as even more creatures began to appear. Zachary tripped and landed on his jaw, his friends made no indication of slowing their flight as they left him behind. He began to stand back up and run again only to see another monster in front of him. He charged at the pony shaped shadow that stared at him, however rather than tackle his enemy as he had planned he splashed through its body. Zachary no longer feared, nor did he think at all. All that was left was the bones.
Bondfire continued to run beside Bass as the creatures relentlessly continued their assault, they grew tired. Bass could feel the fatigue mounting in his hooves as they began to buckle while he ran and yet he did not slow, Bondfire began to clear the way with her fire, trying to rush their escape. Bass felt the splash of blood across his face and heard her screaming but he still refused to stop, running faster towards the barely visible tree line. The sound of screams continued to follow him as he ran out of the forest clearing. He made it out alive.
The village burned with a brightness to rival the sun as the calls of gryphons were heard, ponies screamed and ran in the streets as gryphons dropped bombs on their houses. The fire continued to spread until finally it reached the house of an innocent unicorn mare who had been blessed with great magical talents. She was screaming as she burned alive, screams that made the others seem petty in comparison. She knocked the window out and began trying to claw herself out only to gut herself on a shard of broken glass. She sat in a semi conscious pile under the window while the fire slowly ate her body, erasing the features of her skin.
...
No one ever knew what truly happened in the village on the day of the gryphon raid, no one even knew it was the gryphons who had committed such an atrocity. Most assumed that the village was cursed by ancient spirits and refused to even think of it. The only curse haunting the village was anger, the spirits had never been given closure and mutated into what they were. As I write this to you I aim a shotgun at my own head. I'll see you in hell Equestria.
~Bass
P.S.
They're after you now